Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/94

 enjoyment of leisure. Only so will the emotional disposition be maintained at a high level.

The emotions themselves must be organised. The educationist's aim is not to encourage each and every emotion. Emotions good and valuable in themselves may become positively mischievous if they are allowed to riot at haphazard. There is no more futile life than the existence that is at the mercy of random emotions. And it is important to notice that such an unsystematic condition is not natural. "Mental activity tends, at first unconsciously, afterwards consciously, to produce and to sustain system and organisation." The possibility of organising the emotions depends on the fact that they are always excited by, or cluster round, perceptions or ideas which are to a certain extent in our own power. The emotion of jealousy may be roused equally by the sight of my rival or by the thought of him. A great many of our emotions are excited by imagination or recollection rather than by actual perception or sensation. This is an important point in connection with their organisation. For our trains of thoughts and images are more under our control than our perceptions. We cannot always choose what we shall perceive; but it is always possible for us to determine what thoughts and images should live in our experience. We can organise them in accordance with our dominant purposes and ideals. And in this way we can organise the emotions which are connected with them.

§ 3. Sentiments. Emotions may be organised into sentiments. In the young child emotions occur as